Damian Wayne (grownup_robin) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2014-05-11 01:37:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, !partner thread, damian wayne (robin), merryweather |
Who: Damian Wayne and Merryweather
What: Bran buys Mother's Day flowers Nancy and Catelyn
When: Backdated: Wednesday, May 7th. Late Afternoon.
Where: Deku's Nursery
Rating: Family Friendly
Status: Complete
Damian might not have had a mother that he could give flowers to or a card to on Mother’s Day, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have anyone else to do that for. He might not have seen her in a while, since him and Alyssa had broken up and things may have still been a little awkward between him and Alyssa, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t send Nancy flowers as a thank you for letting him live with them while he was dating Alyssa. After all, he’d been a random teenager that she’d taken in even before he’d started dating her daughter; not many mothers would do that.
Then there was Catelyn, Bran and Arya’s mother who had been nice enough to let him stay with them after his breakup with Alyssa, so he wanted to show her that he appreciated that as well. Deciding he wanted to be able to choose the flowers in the arrangements, Damian headed over to Navi’s nursery.
It was sort of soothing, being around all the plants. Merry could understand why her cousin liked it so much. Humming to herself as she watered the daisies, Merry felt herself forgetting all the stress of work melting from her shoulders. The weather was warm, so she was in shorts and a t-shirt, wiggling her toes in her shoes.
Damian had no way of knowing that the girl he’d spoken to on Valarnet a few days earlier was also Navi’s cousin and when he entered the nursery, he didn’t see her right away, instead he started walking around, looking at the various plants and flowers. The last time he’d been there, he’d needed help trying to figure out what kind of flowers to get for Alyssa’s garden and he knew he’d ask for help eventually, but he also wanted to take a quick look around before actually seeking anyone out to help him.
That worked out well, as Merry was a bit oblivious, lost in her own thoughts. She turned around, focusing on getting a kink out of the gardening hose and making silly faces at a baby at the same time. It was working out pretty well; the baby was belly laughing.
It was the baby’s laughter that caught Damian’s attention and as he lifted his head from some lilies, he spotted Merry and considering she was holding a hose, he assumed that she worked there. He still didn’t recognize her just yet as he was still fairly far away from her, but he decided to make his way towards her then. “Hi. Excuse me.” He called as he got a little closer in an attempt to get her attention, which was still on the baby.
Merry gave the baby one last raspberry in its direction before standing up and grinning at the guy who’d asked for her attention. “Oh, crap,” she mumbled under her breath. “Cute Guy.” She recognised him first, and sighed a little, mustering her best Customers First smile. “Hi, how can I help you?”
As Merry turned around, Damian recognized her from Valarnet and he couldn’t help but smile, “Hi. Um...I’m looking for some flowers for Mother’s Day.” He’d already mentioned, when they’d spoken on Valarnet, that his mother was dead, so he figured he was going to end up answering questions, but no matter who he got help from, he figured he’d have to explain who the flowers were going to be for.
“Sure, we’ve got lots of stuff. Do you think she’d want something cut or something that’s still blooming?” Merry smiled and put down the hose, figuring she’d be able to pay better attention without something to hold on to. Otherwise, she’d fidget.
“Well, it’s actually two mothers. Not mine.” Damian bit his bottom lip briefly, recognizing that he was about to start babbling, which was something he had a tendency to do around new people or cute girls, “My best friend’s mother, kind of as a thank you for letting me stay with them and, as weird as it sounds, my ex’s mother.”
Merry just smiled, her blue eyes kind. “Doesn’t have to be blood to be a mother,” she murmured. “You’re just lucky you’ve got a few. Do you know what flowers they like? Or what colors?”
“Um…” Damian ran a hand through his hair, trying to think of what kind of flowers Catelyn and Nancy would like, “I’m not really sure. Catelyn, my best friend’s mother, like blues and greens and silvers, but I know those aren’t really the colors of flowers. Well, except blue.” He knew that there were some blue flowers, “And Nancy...she’s a little...out there. So probably not something traditional.”
“So Catelyn, maybe some forget-me-nots and a plant all together in one pot, and maybe an orchid for Nancy?” Merry cocked her head to the side as she thought before moving to show him what she’d talked about. She was fast on her feet and returned with two pots.
Damian nodded as Merry made her suggestions and when she came back he couldn’t help but smile, “Yeah. Yeah, I like those.” Roses hadn’t seemed right for either woman; he’d leave that to their own kids, but he’d known that there had to be the perfect flowers out there for them and these appeared to be them, “I think those are perfect,”
Her face lit up. “Really? Oh good. ... I only help my cousin out here, I’m not as much of a plant person as she is. But hey, maybe I’m getting better!”
“Your cousin? Do you mean the woman who owns the place? She helped me pick out flowers for my ex-girlfriend’s garden once.” Damian said, biting his bottom lip as he recalled when he’d given Alyssa the pansies to plant in the garden.
“Yeah, Navi, she’s my cousin. She lives in Oregon now with her husband and since I came here for work, I offered to help out when I can.” Which was fairly often since she didn’t have many friends yet.
“That’s really cool. So, did you know anything about plants and flowers before you came out here or did she fill you in on everything?” He asked, glancing around at the nursery at the various plants before bringing his attention back to Merry.
“She filled me in on stuff. She’s got some employees here that help too.” Merry shrugged. “I’m a vet in residence, so I know animals way more than plants.” Man, she hoped he didn’t remember her.
“That’s cool. At least she didn’t just throw you to the sharks, as they say.” Damian smirked. He did recognize her, but he wasn’t entirely sure how to bring up that they’d spoken on Valarnet not too long ago, “My best friend wants to be a vet too. He’s working at a clinic part time right now.”
“Oh, she wouldn’t. And does he? That’s awesome! Does he know where he wants to go to school yet?” Merry always looked happy when she was talking about vet school or animals.
Damian told Merry a few of the schools that he could recall Bran having applied to, “While I’m over here, looking at Community colleges.” Damian didn’t think of himself as any less than Bran, because of his choice of schools. It just so happened that Bran knew what he wanted to do while Damian didn’t.
“That’s smart, you can get your core out of the way on the cheap. English 101 is English 101 everywhere.” Merry moved to put the plants down in a cart, wiping dirty hands on her thighs once they were free.
Damian nodded, “Yeah. I keep wondering if I’d know what I want to do if I’d gone to school for the last year and a half, but I’ll never know whether it would have helped or not, so now all I can do is try to figure it out.” He shrugged, trying to recall if he’d had any interests, career wise, before his mother had gotten sick.
“Did you ever have any hobbies? Maybe just figure out something you like from there?” Merry smiled shyly, looking down at Damian’s feet.
“Nothing that I’d want to do professionally. And my dreams have pretty much made me a ninja assassin, so I don’t really know if that’s something to do professionally.” He was joking about that, because honestly, he couldn’t see himself as a paid assassin or anything like that. He’d killed in his dreams and couldn’t do that in real life. “I’m sure I’ll figure something out.”
Merry laughed. “I dream I’m a fairy, so yeah, I get that. You could be a bodyguard.” She started to sing “I Will Always Love You” in a bad-on-purpose, cracky and awful way.
Damian laughed, smiling at her as it passed, “That’s an idea. I hadn’t thought about that. In the dreams, I’m kind of a rich kid, so I don’t really need to worry about school and stuff.” He shrugged then ran a hand through his hair again, “So, I should probably let you get back to work. You need the addresses and stuff, right?”
“I do, yeah.” Merry was glad that she’d been able to make him laugh; he seemed to be kinda sad. She thought he seemed like he should smile more often in general.
Damian had been trying to get back to that place he was in before he and Alyssa had broken up and sometimes he thought he was there, like when he was with Bran or Dick, but he knew that he still wasn’t there, so the fact that Merry had made him laugh was nice. When she was ready for them, he gave her the addresses for The Starks and Nancy, “So, thanks a lot for the help. Maybe we’ll see each other around again sometime.”
“Maybe, yeah.” Merry grinned, handing over his receipt. “I can serenade you some more.”
He couldn’t help but smile at that and felt his cheeks flush slightly, “I’ll hold you to that. No matter where we run into each other.” He couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt his cheeks flush like that, “I’ll expect you to serenade me right then and there.”